Golden Gate Bridge officials announce suicide barrier funding package

SAN FRANCISCO &GT;&GT; Golden Gate Bridge officials announced Monday they have a funding package to build a $76 million suicide barrier for the span and that it could be installed by early 2018.

The bridge district would contribute $20 million from its reserves for the project if OK'd by the bridge board. Caltrans would contribute $22 million, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission $27 million and the state $7 million under the proposed plan, which still needs votes from the various agencies.

The bridge board will take up the issue Friday. It now has a policy of not using toll dollars for the barrier. The barrier issue has been debated back to the 1950s, but the political will to put up a barrier only recently gained momentum.

"What's changed is people's values and an appreciation of the issue of suicide and a greater understanding of it," said Denis Mulligan, bridge district general manager.

If all the funding comes together as planned, the contract for the work would go out at the end of this year and it would take about three years to build, Mulligan said.

Pricetag grows

Originally priced at $50 million, the project cost jumped to $76 million after it was discovered equipment used by workers to maintain the bridge would have to be replaced and moved to create room for the net. Part of the work will include a wind retrofit so the net does not catch big gusts and potentially damage the bridge. A fairing will be placed right below the sidewalk to accomplish that.

Backers of a suicide barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge got a boost in July 2012 when President Obama signed a transportation bill that includes language allowing federal funds to flow to the project.

That transportation bill contains crucial wording allowing funding for suicide prevention including safety rails and nets on bridges. The language in the bill also clarifies that institutions such as the Golden Gate Bridge district — a special-purpose district — are eligible for these funds.

It was Sen. Barbara Boxer, who once served on the bridge board when she was a Marin County supervisor, who agreed to carry the language in the bill.

A 'priority'

"The suicide barrier has long been a commission priority," said John Goodwin, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which has contributed funding previously for design work. "It's improving the safety of our transportation issue."

The commission — the Bay Area's transportation planning agency — is a key player because it has access to federal funds to provide to the project.

The bridge district's suicide barrier plan calls for a net extending 20 feet below and 20 feet from the side of the span. The net would be made of stainless steel cable.

While people could still jump into the net, such occurrences might be rare because the net would act as a deterrent. A similar net was placed more than a decade ago on the Munster Terrace cathedral in Bern, Switzerland, and since then no suicide attempts have been reported.

"At other locations no one has yet to jump into a net," Mulligan said. "The purpose of the project is to reduce the number of injuries and deaths associated with jumping off the bridge. Nothing in life is 100 percent foolproof. While nets have been 100 percent effective elsewhere, we are not promising it will be 100 percent effective here."

Roughly two dozen people jump from the span each year, and more than 1,500 people have jumped from the span since it opened in 1937. Another 80 or so people who are contemplating suicide are pulled off the bridge every year.

The bridge has the most suicides of any structure in the world, according to the Bridge Rail Foundation, a group working to get a barrier in place.

"It's good to finally see this happening," said Paul Muller, spokesman for the Sausalito-based foundation. "We have been waiting a long time for this. Many loved ones have been lost."